Tag Archives: New York Beauty blocks

Two Different New York Beauty Blocks and a Giveaway

Posted on by

13

As if I wasn’t having enough fun with the first New York Beauty collection, on Sunday a second New York Beauty collection was released. Of course I had to make a block. Truth be told, I’ve printed enough for 12 blocks of the new collection and another 12 of the first collection. The Tiffany Lamp quilt is going to be even more fun, if that’s possible, to make!

This is the new block I made with the first collection.

This one was made with the new second collection. I can’t get over how amazingly easy it was to put together. It took about an hour and a half to piece, although it took me much longer to decide which fabrics I wanted to use in which spot. I was going for a much more muted, almost watercolour, effect with this one and I think I accomplished that. For those who paper piece, the collection contains a page that can be printed for that purpose. They are both 6″ blocks.

It’s easy to press. I pieced the two triangle strips first and pressed them, joined the small arc to the quarter circle and pressed that and then joined all the pieces together.

I can’t possibly choose a favourite between the two types. Do you have a favourite?

~~~~~~~~~~

Now for the giveaway.

Have you ever been tempted to make a Double Wedding Ring but have shied away from it because of its supposed difficulty? You can win the Inklingo Double Wedding Ring collection which makes stitching a DWR unbelievably simple. It really is Double Wedding Ring with training wheels on. I’ve made a small table runner with the collection and couldn’t believe how easy it was to piece. There are loads of possibilities for designing, as you can see on the All About Inklingo blog. To be entered in the draw, leave a comment at the All About Inklingo blog by Saturday, May 12. The design shown above, Blossoms in Niagara on the Lake, is one of my favourites of the many gorgeous design possibilities shown on this post at the blog. Scroll through the posts and see all the amazing things one can do with the Inklingo DWR collection.

But don’t just stop there. Have a good look through the All About Inklingo blog. It is full of creative inspiration, design layouts, EQ7 downloads using Inklingo shapes, and the list goes on.

~~~~~~~~~~

Baxter was posing on the couch on Saturday. I love the crossed paws. He has a little “milk moustache”, as we’ve been calling it. If you click on the photo to enlarge it, I think you’ll see it.

Two New Beauties

Posted on by

12

New York Beauty blocks, that is. This is the one that was partially finished yesterday.

Because I couldn’t resist, another one was stitched. There are seven in total that are done now and it’s time to print some more. I’m going to keep printing the combo sheet with all the shapes so that I can mix and match to my heart’s content. I’ve not settled on a setting yet but that will come when I finish making the blocks, however many blocks that may turn out to be. I know I’ve said it before, but they are amazingly quick to stitch, particularly when taking advantage of the continuous stitching possibilities. This block truly has it all for me — curved piecing, sharp points, continuous stitching.

I’ve used the little Rowenta travel iron all week now and I’m really impressed with it. It gets very hot very quickly and presses blocks like the New York Beauty ones fabulously well. The pointed tip on the iron really helps when dealing with sharp points like those in these blocks.

Today I’m treating myself to a pedicure. It’s almost time for sandals so a pedicure seems in order. My plans for the weekend include printing more of the New York Beauty shapes and getting more of the 2″ Drunkard’s Path blocks ready to stitch. What are your plans?

Baxter was stretched out on the floor again. Mr. Q.O. thinks he looks rather elegant in this pose. I think he’s just waiting for one of us to toss a favourite toy for him to chase.

Colour, Colour and More Colour

Posted on by

7

More fabrics have been added to the mix for the Tiffany Lamp quilt. Rather than being a small wall hanging, I have a feeling this one is going to end up as a lap quilt. I can’t resist these wonderful colours and can’t wait to play with them. I’m going to try to resist printing more of the New York Beauty shapes on them until the weekend. Try being the operative word.

The lure of those fabrics is irresistible right now. I think it’s because I’m trying to stick with finishing the red and white Feathered Star/Sunflower quilt and have hit that spot where it just seems like I’m never going to quite get there. I’m over halfway finished with the pieced border elements so am determined to stick with it.

I love the elegance of two-colour quilts, but think for my next one I’ll choose a pattern that has not quite so many pieces to it. I am still hoping to make at least two more – a green and white one and a yellow and white one. And who knows, perhaps another red and white one. But not this year!  And not one that has a gazillion pieces to it.

Have you made a two-colour quilt? Did you find that you were really finding it difficult at times to contemplate working on it? I think what this red and white quilt has taught me is that I am more drawn to making scrappy and more colourful quilts.

I’m also starting to put ideas together for this year’s baseball playoffs/World Series quilt. While it’s very early in the season, I want to have lots of ideas in the ideas book when it comes time. Of course, if the Jays make it into the playoffs I won’t be stitching. I’ll be on the edge of the couch, watching every pitch.

The mourning doves are back. We haven’t seen them out on the roof garden for a few years. Yesterday I looked out the window and there was one perched on the tree. I love the sound of them. Baxter was rather intrigued, as they are somewhat larger than the birds he usually sees out there.

Baxter had a busy day yesterday, with lots to watch out on the roof garden including the gardeners. I think they’re starting to prepare the flower beds, but I bet they don’t plant anything before the Victoria Day weekend. After his busy day, Baxter was crashed last night on “his” quilt.

A Different New York Beauty

Posted on by

14

This is the first of seven New York Beauty blocks that will be made using these fabrics. I have a plan for a small doll/teddy bear quilt. Oh, who am I kidding? I just really wanted to see how the block would look in a more muted colourway. Now I know. I don’t think there’s a set of fabrics that wouldn’t be fabulous for NYB. I still have plans to play with batiks and Fassett prints and shabby chic and who knows what else. I can’t get over how quick a block this is to hand piece. It’s easy to piece one an hour.

Seams graded and pressed. One thing is noticeable. This is an ordinary quilters’ cotton while the Tiffany lamp fabrics have a metallic element to them. The ordinary cotton presses flatter with less effort. This block got the Baxter seal of approval – he licked it!

A question was asked yesterday about how I use Inklingo, whether it is to print the shapes on fabric or to print templates to trace. So I thought I’d show on a couple of fabrics just how perfectly the shapes print right on the back of the fabric. First on a light fabric. Oops — thought we had taken the picture before I started cutting but quickly realized we hadn’t. The smaller arc is the only thing missing from this sheet. If you click on this photo to enlarge it, you can see the stitching and cutting lines and matching points and crosshairs.

And then on a dark one. There are lots of ink colours from which to choose for each fabric. That said, I’ve been using Inklingo long enough that I can pretty much group the fabrics I’m printing and use certain ink colours for each group. I do tend to use the reds more than anything else as the red ink always seems to rinse out in seconds, although I always do a test sheet when I change ink cartridges just in case the manufacturers have improved their inks.

For the NYB blocks, I’m using one of the combo sheets. In this case, it’s the combo sheet which has all the shapes for a block. Each of the blocks will be slightly different as a result. For identical blocks, I would print each shape separately on the fabrics. In the case of the New York Beauty blocks, I print every shape on my fabrics as I’m hand piecing.

For some other blocks, particularly those using HSTs or QSTs, I might only print on one of the fabrics, in this photo on a muslin, and then use those lines to stitch by machine as shown for the sailboat blocks here.

When we were setting up to take the missing picture of the light fabric, Baxter decided he had to lie down on the fabric first. There’s nothing he loves more than a piece of fabric to paw at and possibly lick. Mr. Q.O. captioned this one, “Well, I’m helping, aren’t I?”